Policy · Fact Check
Key events 35m ago Reserve Bank hikes cash rate to 4.6%, the highest level since 2011 36m ago Hanson-Young to seek Greens leadership 2h ago Shoebridge does not rule Greens leadership nomination ‘in or out’ ahead of party vote 4h ago Albanese says OpenAI talks after the Medicare hack were ‘very constructive’ 4h ago OpenAI executive flying in from US for committee hearing on artificial intelligence 6h ago Greens to meet next week to choose new leader after Larissa Waters steps down 6h ago Bogong moths back at Parliament House 7h ago Police investigating suspicious deaths of two men in northern NSW 7h ago Chalmers: Australia should not ‘carry the can’ for overseas decisions 7h ago Wife of missing activist urges Albanese government help 8h ago Mia Lay among officers mourned at National Police Remembrance Day 8h ago Chalmers defends record ahead of RBA cash rate decision 8h ago Welcome Police investigating suspicious deaths of two men in northern NSW Catie McLeod New South Wales police say they are investigating the suspicious deaths of two men in the state’s north. Police said they found the first man – who has since been identified as a 79-year-old – dead at a property on Summerland Way at Gurranang, near Grafton, on 13 September. Police said they attended the same property about 3.40pm on Monday as part of their investigation.
After arriving at the house, police said they found the body of the second man, who they believe to be aged in his 50s, and set up another crime scene. Chalmers: Australia should not ‘carry the can’ for overseas decisions Chalmers said he doesn’t believe inflation is out of control, but he doesn’t want to see Australians “carry the can for decisions” on the other side of the world. The treasurer is appearing on what seems like every television and radio program this morning to tout the government’s record on the economy while acknowledging the difficulties reining in inflation amid a cost of living crisis.
He said a lot of Australians are bracing for an almost certain Reserve Bank interest rate increase today, adding the government sees taming inflation and keeping unemployment low as “two important objectives”. double quotation mark And that’s equally important in the Reserve Bank’s mandate, dual mandate, which talks about maintaining full employment at the same time as they go for price stability, which means inflation in the target band. He defended his government’s tax receipts as a percentage of GDP, saying they were lower than under the Howard government. double quotation mark Well, it’s still lower than what we saw under Howard and Costello, is the first point. When asked if he would accept higher unemployment in exchange for tamed inflation, Chalmers maintained the government was “not for higher unemployment”. double quotation mark I think that’s pretty clear.
And what we’ve seen in recent years is that it’s possible to have low and steady unemployment at the same time as we see inflation moderate to more normal levels. Jim Chalmers. Photograph: Hilary Wardaugh/AAP Wife of missing activist urges Albanese government help The wife of an Australian activist missing in Cambodia has implored the Albanese government to find him and bring him home, Australian Associated Press reports.
Tran Hiep , a 50-year-old Australian-Vietnamese democracy campaigner, was due to return to Bangkok, Thailand, to reunite with his wife, Chloe Dang, after a short trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, to meet human rights defenders. Australian-Vietnamese democracy activist Tran Hiep, 50, has been reported missing in Cambodia. Photograph: PR IMAGE But he never boarded his flight and has not communicated with his wife since 18 September, leaving her worried for his safety. double quotation mark My husband deserves protection, and I really hope the Australian government will continue to put pressure on Cambodia to do an investigation to find out where he is right now.
Hiep, a freelance IT professional who founded the Australian Alliance to Combat Human Trafficking, was travelling with another human rights activist, Nguyen Duc Thuan , who is also Vietnamese and holds a Norwegian passport. The pair travelled to Cambodia to meet with dissident Vietnamese activists for training. Tran Hiep’s wife is urging the Albanese government to deploy resources to help find him.
Photograph: PR IMAGE Chalmers says Australians understand there are ‘inflationary challenges’ in our economy The treasurer, Jim Chalmers , said the inflationary challenge in the economy is being made “much worse” by the war in the Middle East. Chalmers, speaking on Channel 7’s Sunrise this morning ahead of the RBA announcement, said the government has focused on savings and delivering surpluses to get government debt down. double quotation mark But we know that there’s always more work today. I think people understand, people who might be bracing for an interest rate rise later today. ...
I think people understand that there are inflationary challenges in our economy. But when you see what’s happening with global oil prices ... obviously, factually, that is one the big drivers of inflation that people are having other deal with right now. Chalmers said he knows that people are under pressure and that interest rate rises add to that pressure. double quotation mark That’s why we accept our part, our responsibility for our part in this fight against inflation. ...
And it also means dealing with these longer term economic challenges. Mia Lay among officers mourned at National Police Remembrance Day Mia Lay , the Sydney police officer who was killed in a car crash last week, will be among those mourned at National Police Remembrance Day 2026 in Sydney. New South Wales’ premier, Chris Minns , governor, Margaret Beazley, and police commissioner, Mal Lanyon, will be among the guests at Sydney’s Domain.
Minns said he felt incredibly gratitude for the service of police officers across the state: double quotation mark [Police] start a shift not knowing what you are going to face, and we ask these young men and women to put themselves in harm’s way to keep the rest of us safe. Police and counter-terrorism minister, Yasmin Catley , said: double quotation mark My thoughts are with the families of Constable Lay, Sergeant [Mark] Bransgrove and everyone else who has lost a loved one in the line of duty. Their sacrifice will never be forgotten.
Lay, 20, had worked as a police officer for just 16 months when she was killed “instantly” in the crash in Redfern on Friday. Sgt Mark Bransgrove, who died in July last year, served in the police service for 38 years, including 30 years in the Forensic Services Group. Remembrance events will also be held in Broken Hill, Bourke, Orange, Lithgow, Inverell, Dubbo and Tamworth, as well as other cities and towns across the country.
Const Mia Lay, who died on duty on Friday. Photograph: NSW Police Good morning, and happy Tuesday. It’s Nick Visser here to take over the blog.
Let’s get to it. There were 30 drowning deaths in 2025-2026, the highest number in almost a decade, according to a Royal Life Saving Australia report that Australian Associated Press reports on. Of them, 14 involved more than one death, often related to boating, driving through floodwater, or people exploring unfamiliar environments, chief executive Justin Scarr said. double quotation mark The message is to know the swimming skills of all the people in your group.
It is the largest spike in deaths since 2016-2017, when 34 lives were lost. Over the past decade there have been with 229 deaths, or an average of 23 per year. In the most recent year, 83% of drowning victims were men, 37% were born overseas and a quarter were aged between 65 and 74.
Nearly one-third of the fatal events were related to boating, while driving through floodwater and swimming were the other leading circumstances. Besides the RBA decision at 2.30pm, the other big political story of the day is that Larissa Waters is standing down as Greens leader. She said last night that a kidney disease she has been managing has recently worsened and that she needs to stand down.
Here’s our story from political editor Tom McIlroy : Chalmers defends record ahead of RBA cash rate decision Catie McLeod The treasurer, Jim Chalmers , has defended his economic record on the eve of what is widely expected to be the fourth interest rate rise of 2026, as the Reserve Bank remains concerned about persistent inflation. The RBA board is poised to hike the cash rate from 4.35% to 4.6% on Tuesday, which would be the fourth increase in 2026 and push typical home loan interest rates to 6.5%. Speaking on the ABC’s 7.30 program last night, Chalmers emphasised the factors contributing to inflation, saying that Australia was performing well considering what was going on in the world, particularly in the Middle East. double quotation mark We have a lot going for us and we’ve got a lot of work to do to make sure that in these difficult global circumstances Australia continues to out-perform the world.
We have a big inflation challenge in our economy. It’s made much worse by decisions taken on the other side of the world. From an economic point of view this war in Iran has been an absolute disaster for Australian families, because they have been asked to pay a hefty price.
Welcome Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Nick Visser with the main action. Jim Chalmers has defended his stewardship of the economy ahead of what is widely expected to be the fourth interest rate rise of 2026 as the Reserve Bank tries to bring down persistent inflation.
More coming up. Besides the RBA decision at 2.30pm, the other big political story of the day is that Larissa Waters is standing down as Greens leader. We’ll have reaction as it comes in this morning plus the latest on who might replace her.
Source: The Guardian
